Am I required to refrigerate bottles after bottling?Yeah, keeping those in the fridge is a good idea. It sounds like you've read Dustin's answer, it's a good one. You shouldn't have to refrigerate your bottles. Sometimes, rarely, it's not even your fault, you can get a bad bottle with imperfections and they break, in that case, there is almost nothing you can do (save use only very low carb'd beer).

Reusable Beer LabelI would suggest this sort of treatment and also have your dad be more careful with these bottles, IE rinse them more thoroughly after drinking, to ensure that soaks in StarSan aren't required.

Hydrometer readingA thief is worth like $5 from your LHBS or online, so purchasing one may be a better plan.

Sep1

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Hydrometer reading@FrustratedWithFormsDesigner, it's essentially a tube that you stick into your beer/wine and it will pull off the right amount for your hydrometer. The images on the internet are fairly poor though. Denny's turkey baster is pretty much exactly like an actual wine thief, mine doesn't have a bulb on the end though, so I need to wait for it to fill up (it's pretty slow)